Angular Momentum has released KickLab XL, a freeware drum kick generator VST instrument for Windows PC.

KickLab XL features

• Multi filter with 16 different filter modes.
• Saturator.
• Equalizer.
• Distortion.
• 60 Presets.

Visit Angular Momentum for more information.

Some interesting things I found on May 6th, 2008:

# Jazz trash robot is an experimental sound-producing entity made from recycled electro-mechanical components. It is a collection of mechanical sequencers and timers, that can be connected together with various experimental instruments we have made or altered. Our instruments are build in an experimental manner, so they are quite unexpectable as themselves, but connecting them all through the robot gives them exponential possibilities for randomness and unexpectancy.

Jazz trash robot, check the Flickr set for more images

The main idea is, that connecting a vast number of experimental instruments together in an experimental manner the instruments will produce a very complex and interesting soundscape. We can pretune the instruments so we can affect the direction of the end-result, but we can not fully control it.

In this project the Jazz Trash robot is the artist and the koelse.org crew is working as technicians maintaining it. The robot can perform solo, we can leave some user interfaces open for the audience to jam with our robot, or we can perform together with the robot as one of our bandmembers.

# Random Music Box - a PIC-based organ that plays random chord progressions.

# Chiptune Music Theft Continues; Crystal Castles Abuses Creative Commons License
I'm pro sampling (and yes there are some grey areas) but I think it's fairly obvious when people take these things too far and go from taking inspiration to plain theft of songs. Not cool.

# nine inch nails: the slip - NiN’s latest album is available for free.

Trent Reznor writes:

thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me.

The music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. A .pdf with artwork and credits is included in the download. (CD and vinyl should be available in July).

# Pixels Go Mad - The Celebration Of Pixel Art - Over 50 excelent pixel art designs — illustrations, paintings and posters.

# Curious Inventor Kits : Voice of Saturn Sequencer - a 10 step analog sequencer, which basically steps through 10 different voltage levels that are set by the black knobs.

asinus aureus has released version 1.1.1.1 of dmu sinus, a freeware synthesizer VST plug-in for Windows PC.

Changes since dmu sinus v1.0

• Optimized code, uses less CPU.
• Portamento fix.
• Tweaked vibrato speed and volume hard clip.
• Tweaked envelope settings.
• Added fold-back distortion for overtones.
• New velocity scale setting.
• Added pitchbend range 0-48 semitones.
• Fix for Ableton Live.
• Improved volume settings.

Visit asinus aureus for more information and a link to download dmu sinus.

Peace Love Productions has released Electro Rock, a sample library by PLP and Burton L Music featuring a combination of Rock elements fused together with Electronic Dance Music.

You’ll get Electric Guitar and Live Drum Beats fused together with complimenting Electronic Beats, Basses, and Synths. There are Ten session packs that can create up to Ten songs instantly. Mix and match the loops from all Ten and the possibilities are endless. Electro Rock will get your creative juices flowing right away.

Electro Rock features

• Over 300 loops, 24 Bit 44.1 Stereo.
• 10 Song Packs.
• Wav, AIF, and RX2.

Electro Rock is available for download for $29.95 USD.

Visit Peace Love Productions for more information and audio demos.